Author, I Never is a new segment in which I interview fellow authors about the writing process, breaking into the industry, and breaking rules. I try to mix it up a little and ask some hopefully novel questions along with some of the old standards, and finish it up with a round of I Never (kid friendly version) to find out what cardinal writing rules you've broken.

Question the first: Laura, when did you first know you wanted to be a writer?

So, I read a TON of Lucy Maud Montgomery books as a kid. Anne of Green Gables and Emily of New Moon were very much my bosom friends. Anne and Emily both have very vivid imaginations (as I did and still do) and both of them loved to write. Writing as a hobby never occurred to me until one fateful recess period in 4th grade, when I was struck by a bolt of inspiration out of the blue. Thanks to Anne and Emily, I knew exactly what to do and jotted down a terrible poem about the wind.

Author, I Never is a new segment in which I interview fellow authors about the writing process, breaking into the industry, and breaking rules. I try to mix it up a little and ask some hopefully novel questions along with some of the old standards, and finish it up with a round of I Never to find out what cardinal writing rules you've broken. 

Question the first: Tara, when did you first know you wanted to be a writer?

I don’t know if I can actually pinpoint a single moment when I decided I wanted to be a writer. I know that by second and third grade, I was reading constantly, writing a lot, and fairly certain that I was soon going to become the world’s first bestselling author who was still in elementary school. I remember my third grade teacher telling me that stories submitted to publishers came back with “red pencil all over them.” Not my stories, I thought. (Gosh, I wish I still had that confidence!) It only took me 25 more years, and I had sold my first book!

Author, I Never is a new segment in which I interview fellow authors about the writing process, breaking into the industry, and breaking rules. I try to mix it up a little and ask some hopefully novel questions along with some of the old standards, and finish it up with a round of I Never (kid friendly version) to find out what cardinal writing rules we've broken.

Question the first: Hayley, when did you first know you wanted to be a writer?

I was one of those children who always had a journal with me. I wrote constantly. But I mostly wrote songs because a) I was obsessed with singing and b) writing a whole book was way too daunting. Writing a novel was always something I wanted to do someday, but it wasn’t until I was twenty-three and swamped with reading legal textbooks that I realised I needed fiction in my life in the same way that I needed oxygen. That’s when I wrote my first (terrible) draft of a novel.

Author, I Never is a new segment in which I interview fellow authors about the writing process, breaking into the industry, and breaking rules. I try to mix it up a little and ask some hopefully novel questions along with some of the old standards, and finish it up with a round of I Never to find out what cardinal writing rules you've broken. 

Question the first: Don, when did you first know you wanted to be a writer?

As far back as I can remember, I wanted to be a writer. I’ve even got a little book I wrote when I was 11, that I PUT A COPYRIGHT ON. (Yeah, I was already concerned with copyright infringement). I think I decided I wanted to be a writer for a career my junior year in high school. I was sitting in the back of my parents’ car heading to a swim meet and it hit me: I just want to be a writer. 

Author, I Never is a new segment in which I interview fellow authors about the writing process, breaking into the industry, and breaking rules. I try to mix it up a little and ask some hopefully novel questions along with some of the old standards, and finish it up with a round of I Never to find out what cardinal writing rules you've broken. 

 Question the first: Mischa, when did you first know you wanted to be a writer?

Since elementary school. I lived in fiction as a kid, and at ten I was ‘working’ at the local library processing new books, which in those days meant pasting in card pockets and filing Dewey cards. Saying it like that makes me feel ancient, but it was so much fun! In high school I started writing short stories and some novel-length fanfic and promised myself that by 25 I would have a book on the shelves. I’m almost ten years late to that goal, but as they say, there’s the plan and then there’s real life!